That is true. May be apples and oranges if paying for staff hotel rooms, flying people out, etc is a different level of service than Anthrocon. I'm not aware of it being detailed but what I know of the guy's other business, is he seems to do that kind of thing, and paying out $60k on a small con isn't a big deal as a hobby thing if say, you're Elliott's and have a mountain of tech money. Gabriel was VP of a computer company at age 23, maybe not a big deal as those go, but there's a media report of him running another business at a loss just to do nice things. Is it a "vanity con"? No idea, but if so, enjoy it everyone. It could also easily just be paying out once to make a big splash and get things firmly established.
That is true. May be apples and oranges if paying for staff hotel rooms, flying people out, etc is a different level of service than Anthrocon. I'm not aware of it being detailed but what I know of the guy's other business, is he seems to do that kind of thing, and paying out $60k on a small con isn't a big deal as a hobby thing if say, you're Elliott's and have a mountain of tech money. Gabriel was VP of a computer company at age 23, maybe not a big deal as those go, but there's a media report of him running another business at a loss just to do nice things. Is it a "vanity con"? No idea, but if so, enjoy it everyone. It could also easily just be paying out once to make a big splash and get things firmly established.